Fragment of a Floor Mosaic: Hunting Tigress with Cub and Ibis in a Field of Flowers

Lauren Kessinger

visited museum on 9/11/15  9:20 am

Fragment of a Floor Mosaic: Hunting Tigress with Cub and Ibis in a Field of Flowers

Gift of David T. Owsley

450-550 CE

Stone tesserae embedded in lime mortar

          During the time of the Byzantine empire mosaics where very popular in art, the mosaic being made out of lime mortar was very common. The lime mortar gave the mosaic a water-proof coating that could with stand outside conditions; conditions it might travel through on the silk road. The lime mortar did not only protect it but it also served as a smooth surface for the master mason to chisel or embed other materials into then lime.  The use of, smalti, glass tesserae sourced from northern Italy and obtained through travel and trade for other important products to those in Italy , proved to be popular in the Byzantine period; these could be the different substances that are embedded into the lime.

        Mosaics with animals and floral designs where very popular and could easily be found in the decorations of an orthodox church. The artist that designed Orthodox churches were very careful to install their tiles at correct angles in order to allow light reflection and refraction; even when the art is part of the floor as well as the wall. The light bouncing off the tiles was a great part of lighting the churches and expressing the bright colors.

        A lot of the art in this time was based on either story or legends passed throughout the ancestry; a lot of the major themes where based off christianity and other religious figures. Another design that was used would be flowers. The mosaic could represent a story that was passed down through story telling about a lion teaching his son how to hunt in flowers which could be a representation of something greater in that time period.

Cinerary Urn with Lid

The Ball/Kraft collection of Ancient Glass

1-199 CE

Glass

        Being made of glass and not marble this urn was most likely used for an upper class commoner; those higher up where more likely to be held in a marble urn that had special carvings to decorate the cinerary urn.However glass was easier to come by for commoners and most could not afford marble and an artist to design the urn. Those commoners who where very poor could not afford a urn at all; so having one for your loved ones was a great honor to the family. Families constructed shrines that were used for multiple generations, being larger this urn was probably used for a large family overtime.

        The burial in a urn was a form developed by the Etruscans and then passed down the greeks, then when the Romans conquered this was another greek influenced ritual the Romans adopted.  Etruscans believed that death was the journey to the afterlife and had a fear that the neglected dead may become malevolent. The urn served as a way of safe passage, like a boat would in real life. With the urn other precious things such as jewelry, weapons, incense would be buried with the body; these are all things the Etruscans believed would help them to have a full afterlife.

        Decorations could represent that person’s importance in life on earth or symbolize safe passage to the next world. However since beliefs had changed through out time the importance of decorations changed also. The Romans instead of decorating for a good luck and having a safe passage to the afterlife like the Etruscans believed in decorated for other things such as; a memorial of the status, position, and individualism of the deceased. The living demonstrated a concern for portraying the deceased in his adult prime, in his profession, or as a character in a mythological scene where the deceased played the role of an enduring and often heroic figure.